Venkat's Weblog

2011 – Not just another year of change

What a start this has been to the new financial year – India picking up the World Cup! A truly comprehensive and a much awaited accomplishment. 2011, am sure has much more in store. Personally, I am hoping to accomplish many an ambitions this year, starting with moving my office premises to a state of the art facility come June. The company has definitely reached great heights in 2010 and laid a very strong foundation to an impressive 2011.

At the outset, with all this euphoria around the corner, I am quite intrigued by the recent show of support to the much publicised anti-corruption movement. Respectable Anna Hazare, sure has shown the youth of this nation a way to initiate change. The media has been quick in covering every aspect of this movement and the celebrity brigade has amply showered its stamp of alliance and support. Everything is going the way one would want. With the recent 2G scam developments, corruption in India is finally under the scanner, Again?

Pardon me for letting the cynic in me voice out this thought, but isn’t all this seemingly convenient? There have been hundreds of such movements across India at various points in time. Some garnering similar media coverage and interest and most nondescript. It is my strong belief that 3 months down the line, this movement, the setting up of Lokpal, the media, the celebrities, the seemingly discerning youth, will all struggle to remember and stick to the core purpose of this movement.

Am not saying what has happened is incorrect or will have no value, but this plague will need a rather different approach, a different solution, a different brigade of policing and monitoring and most importantly a committed political leadership to support such a cause. I don’t at this point in time have a clear method of solution to this problem, however, I have been immensely passionate about the affairs of our country and hence this food for thought.

Regardless of all the cynicism one may have, I do believe that the first steps taken are in the right direction. When done in earnestness, the deed deserves all the acceptance in earnestness. That’s something I try to follow. And maybe, just maybe, the adage “All’s well that ends well” could also be rephrased as “All’s well that begins well”.

Here’s to a great year ahead and best wishes to all.

 

Anna University Speaking: Ethos and Pathos

" I am appealing to both the ethics and emotions of the (supposedly)
educated students and also their parents. It gives me great pain to
see my Campus so dirty, and not by some uneducated
people, but by the future students (who come for counseling for
engineering courses) of the University itself!

What value does the education have if you cannot imbibe its essence? Sad are the future
engineers who aspire to build buildings and great structures but fail
to keep their immediate surroundings clean.

Why do these young minds fail to understand that cleanliness is next
to godliness? Is moral science just some subject which you read and
not understand?

Please understand that ALL of you students are ALREADY dreaming of going abroad even before you join you course and dreaming of writing
to your family about the wonderful surroundings in the countries you MIGHT reside.

ALL of you FAIL to understand that those countries are what they are because people like you aspired not to leave the country they live in but to change their own country. Change starts from within.....all of you are seeking the change outside refusing to change within..

As parents it is very important for you to instill these values to your children
very young. When you throw a plastic bottle in the open and not in
the bin, please understand your children will not be different from
you.

A very important landmark and Alma Mater to many, I
deserve to be a better place and I do hope that there not many young
minds who litter their own university but expect miracles from their
country. I am not a exception but an example of the plight of our country

Please educate yourselves.....with all the right things in life....PLEASE"

Yours truly,
Anna University

Ground Level Meetings

"Client Deadlines, SIFMA conference in the US next week and more projects taking off in India and Singapore .... should we say we are still grounded!!!

Here are our VP Products and Solutions-Praveen with our tech team, discussing project deliveries.......Ground Level Meeting

Did I say we were REALLY hard pressed for time!!!
seen above are some of our UI team members trying to bring in more ingenuity by gaming off in our office XBOX 360

7th Annual Capital Markets conference

Its been quite exhaustive month of travel . It was strenuous 15 day trip starting from Mumbai to USA and back to Chennai but I need to admit a very fruitful one. The trip started with the business team and myself attending the FICCI conference in Mumbai.

20th April 2010 marked the 7th Annual Conference on Capital Markets under the theme Capital Markets 2020: Going for 3X. I was invited to be a part of the panel which discussed on “Expanding the Retail Investor Base”. I shared stage with some of the most eminent heads, like Mr. Rashesh Shah, Chairman, FICCI’s Capital Market’s Committee, and Chairman, Edelweiss Capital Ltd Mr. Joseph Massey, MD& CEO, MCX Stock Exchange, Mr. Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Group President, Global Financial Services, Spice Finance , Mr. Kedar Deshpande, Sr. Vice President, Edelweiss Securities Ltd, Mr. Prithvi Haldea, Chairman & Managing Director, PRIME Database , Mr. Shachindra Nath, Group CEO, Religare Enterprises Ltd , Mr. Gagan Rai, Managing Director and CEO, NSDL.

The 45 min was more of a discussion based panel, with emphasis on how technology can really help retail investors. With many bottlenecks present in the form of conservative saving habits (though India has the highest household saving percentage of 32%) and risk averse investors. But empowering the investor with right education, giving qualitative information and the ability to trade anywhere and anytime were the points that I stressed on. Overall FICCI provided a great platform for introducing Market Simplified's launch in India.

It was followed by exhaustive and a very successful trip to almost all over USA to meet our existing clients and meeting new prospects. Back in Chennai and planning further trips to middle east and the US.

My next stop to US would be to attend the SIFMA conference to be held between June 22nd-24th. I am really happy that ‘Mobile’ has been added as a topic of interest in the current conference and as our second year at SIFMA. Preparations and related stress now....more shortly

We are Hiring

MARKET SIMPLIFIED is HIRING!!

Its expansion time here!

We are a technology company specializing in developing transaction capable mobility solutions for Financial services companies, based out of chennai. MARKET SIMPLIFIED is a closely held public company. We have designed and developed the patent pending UBAC (Unified Brokerage Access Channel) platform which allows rapid development of mobile and web clients for brokerages, Institutions, IFAs and other financial market participants.

So if you are Smart Independent Individual willing to co-develop cutting edge financial technology products and know how to get your work done, then we need you.

Here in nutshell is what we do:

· Provide Mobile Trading Solutions to Online Brokerages

· Provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFA) instant web and mobile financial solutions

· Provide Enterprise Mobility Solutions

Whom are we looking for:

Passionate people, who are able to identify themselves with our zest and culture. The talent pool in MARKET SIMPLIFIED spends the majority of its time actually creating things. Sometimes these are technical, Sometimes they're about communication and sometimes even about designing systems for how pieces of the company operate. We consider this is really important too, particularly when you really want to scale up what a company can do thus rightly reward the people who got you there.

Support Team

Number of Resource: 2

Basic Skill Set:

Good in Linux internals ,
Basic Programming Skills in any scripting language(s).
Good Knowledge on networking concepts.
Analytical skills to debug/trouble shoot the issues

Good/comfort in reading docs for configuration,installation and troubleshooting

Knowledge on linux commands and how to use them effectively (more over knows where to get help !)

Working in shifts.

Experience: Experience does not matter , if the Basic Skill Set are met.

Roles and Responsibilities:

- Trouble shooting & Fixing the issues.
- Handling support tickets.

- Handling multiple servers effectively, and ensuring max. uptime.
- Maintenance / Updation of Automation modules.

Platform Team:

Number of Resource: 2

Experience: 2+

Technical Skills:

1) Languages: Strong programming skills in C, C++ or JAVA. in Linux Platforms
2) Network Programming, TCP/IP, MySQL, Multi-threaded programming, IPC, Algorithms, Data Structures

Advantage: Knowledge in Ruby, Shell Scripting (Bash), Python, Webservices (REST, SOAP, XML)

Roles and Responsibilities:
* Analysis of various Platform requirements
* Low-level design, development, testing and maintenance for Platform
* Maintenance & Enhancements for existing Platform.

Web Development:

Number of Resource: 2

Experience: 2+

Technical Skills :
1) Experience in any open source web frameworks based on Ruby/Python/PHP.
2) Strong in JavaScript and JavaScript frameworks (jQuery/Prototype/Mootools/Dojo).
3) Good Knowledge on Database fundamentals , design and SQL

Advantages :
1) Experience with Ruby on Rails , MySQL/PostgreSQL
2) Linux exposure.

Roles & Responsibilities

1) Development and maintenance of web applications.
2) Generating Test Scripts with Unit and Functional test cases.

Testing

Number of Resources: 1

Requirements:
Must have two years Experience in Software Testing, preferably in financial domain.
Technology Groups :

Mobile Application testing on 2 or more platforms (viz . BB,iPhone, windows, Android, Symbian, palm OS).

Web based application testing on Platforms like Java , .Net is an added advantage

Responsibilities:

Use case analysis, Test case plan and procedure preparation, documenting test reports.
Interact with clients to update them on bug report status.
Maintain Bug tracking Tool.

Java/J2ME programmer:

Resource Requirement: 1

Responsibilities
Reporting to the Development Managers, key responsibilities include:-
1. Development and maintenance of Java, J2ME application.
2. Provide user support on Java, J2ME application system.

Requirements
* Diploma/Degree in Computer Studies or equivalent with at least 1 year of working experience.
* More than a year of working experience with hand-on programming in Java/J2ME/C++/C and UML.
* Sound knowledge and working experience of object-oriented design and development methodology.
* Knowledge of software development life-cycle and agile methodology will be a plus.
* Working experience with Eclipse, Net-beans or Visual Studio.
* Development Platform: Windows/Linux.
* Must be able to function well as a team member in a project and sourcing for technical solution independently.

Intern

Area: Area: Web Development/Mobile App Development/Middle-ware Development

Must be familiar with data structures and algorithms

Knowledge of any one of the languages like C/C++/Java will be a clear advantage.

Resource: 2

Are you one of US ..... then do write to us at jobs@inxsasia.com

Market Simplified in 2010 FQ1

For those who have been an ardent follower/subscriber to Market Simplified, you are well aware of the progress that Market Simplified has been making.

Last calendar year we were proud to be on the leading Mobile Trading Platform providers in the US. This year we have made our foray in Middle East and in Singapore.

With SEBI releasing the draft guidelines pertaining to mobile trading in India, we launched our mobile platform for the Indian markets as well helping us to acquire the leading and some of the respected brokerages in India. With three of the Indian brokerages as our clientele and more in the pipeline, we are all poised to become one of the leading Mobile Platform providers Globally.

2010 has been a great start for the company on the whole...keeping fingers crossed

Drama in Mid Air on Jet Airways 9W 461

Took off from Mumbai on a Jet Airways 9W 461, flew for 20 mins and we hear a LOUD explosion sound on the left engine, then the aircraft starts shaking violently for a few mins...everyone knew that we were not in a normal situation and it was bad....in panic for about 5-6 mins then turbulance stops and finally captain announces that we have to go back to Mumbai cause of some technical snag...ohhhhh man cant believe the calm and composure of the Jet Airways Crew...they declared full emergency and landed with fire engines chasing us..

Apparently it was left engine's (Referred as Engine 1) gas tube which exploded due to temperature raise and the engine failed. We landed back with single engine...which is not a big deal though.

When your life is at stake, it puts some things in perspective...started writing a love message for my family and my entire company on my boarding pass....as if it would reach my family if we fell from that height haha..

I was very anxious and so was my entire family, they all received me at the airport when I took the alternate flight to Chennai. My family was in tears when I showed them the message I wrote on the boarding pass when the aircraft was having a free fall from 39000 feet after one engine flamed out. Of all the people I know the aircraft are built to fly safe with only one one engine. Still when the engine flames out suddenly the aircraft will definitely plummet and fall free until it stabilises on the other engine. I also know pilots are trained to handle such emergencies every time they go to simulators. All that is OK. When on flight at 39000 ft when you hear a thud and aircraft falls free the thought comes to your mind is " what if the aircraft does not recover".....It is something I will never forget in my life...

In spite of the Gods.....

My uncle (father's younger bro) gets knocked down by a bike coming in the wrong direction in Adyar when he was crossing the road. He had a severe head injury and the bike guy didn't even bother stopping to see what he had done to a poor sole who was just crossing the road. Worst his wife (my aunt) was crying for help and two responsible citizens arrive at the scene and relieve my uncle who was battling for his life of his mobile and purse and run away. This is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard of in my life

What country are we living in!!!! Where are all the values which our elders used to teach!!!

Edward Luce's title was apt for our country " In Spite of the gods".....In spite of all the gods our country is growing up with hooligans like the two guys my uncle was blessed with after his accidents...Even God cannot save us I suppose..

New Year Resolutions

Happy 2010 to one and all

It feels great to usher in the New Year with our new clients and followers. This year we at INXS have extended our horizon to greater lengths and are raring to go! With newer clients and more mobile devices conquered, we are set to make this year OURS. So what is new in INXS kitty, a lot….do check out our website www.marketsimplified.com. We are proud to have TD Ameritrade, OptionsXpress, FXCM, PFG Best and Choice Trade as our clients.

I personally have taken the resolution to follow my passion this year….Running and Aviation.

"Greater miles and higher skies are on my wish list for the year"

Wish you all a year full of good health and happiness

Give Life Chennai Marathon 2009

Honestly all my expectations including the weather was INXS ;) during this year's "Chennai Give Life Marathon"

Starting with registration and medical test which was mandatory for all half marathoners, everything was organised really well.

Registration/ Medicals:

For Rs 100, your value for money what you get -
- medical test for all half marathoners
- if you are above 35 or your BP or Heart Rate not satisfactory you will be asked to do a ECG
- if ECG is not clear you get a Echo
- your marathon registration
- water at all water points
- some points had glucose as well
- finish point had cold unlimited butter milk (very thoughtful)

Dont want to write on what could have been better, as there are enough blogs and articles talking about this. So let me take this only on the positives of the marathon

The day:

I think this is the best weather Chennai could ever have. Never thought I would finish the half marathon, with all the lack of practice for the last 6 months. But the weather was the best inspiration for me apart from our own Chennai runners, Hari with a broken finger, Senthil with all his "walk the talk" ideas, Hariharan, the marathon chaser (also quoted by NDTV) from Hyderabad (amazing inspiration for everyone)

At the Start Line

Chennai Runner at the start line

Oath Taking:

Running with Harishankar (broken finger), Hari (marathon Chaser), Senthil (all rounder), Bharghav ,the newly wed runner ;)

NDTV interviewing Chennai Runners

Running Saint (Saint who runs or Runner who happens to be a saint !!!)

Overall it was fun and I enjoyed every minute of the run. Ran for health or charity or just for the heck of it end of the day all of us were happy, thats more important...

Thanks Shankhar Lal M Patel for the pictures
Thanks Chennai Runners for the awesome inspiration and great company.